India Foundation for the Arts
in collaboration with theSchool of Environment and Architecture (SEA), Mumbai
presentsEarchaeology: Structure of Acoustic Spaces
a presentation by Umashankar Mantravadi
followed by a discussion with Nida GhouseFriday, February 02, 2018 | 06:30 PM | School of Environment and ArchitectureEksar Road, Borivali (W), Mumbai - 400 091

Join us for an exciting lecture-demonstration that excavates the world of yore, as you hear about the acoustic properties of historical sites of performance, with a stalwart from the field of sound, Umashankar Mantravadi, on Friday, February 02, 2018 at the School of Environment and Architecture, Mumbai. Umashankar will be joined by his collaborator; writer and curator Nida Ghouse, for a discussion after the lecture.

Umashankar will not only talk about his project in archaeoacoustics, an area of research dealing with the acoustic properties of ancient performance spaces, but also demonstrate the working of his acoustic system at this exciting event!

For this project, Umashankar aurally mapped two ancient performance sites—Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh and Vadakkamnathan Temple in Kerala. The project attempts to challenge the dominant visual understanding of the history of these sites, to recognise the significance of their acoustic properties in the building and conservation. His study also examines the effects of industrialisation on our current listening practices. He will engage with these ideas, and talk about his inventions and experiences of the project.

Umashankar Mantravadi is a senior Indian sound technician and inventor, considered a maestro on sound recording and archiving. An enthusiast in electronics, he has been accredited with many inventions in sound technology. Some of these inventions, which are now in popular use in the industry, were created by him on shoestring budgets. He was also instrumental in setting up and maintaining the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (part of the American Institute of Indian Studies, AIIS), Gurgaon. His latest invention is the ambisonic tetrahedral microphone system called Brahma.